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Snow is creeping down the mountains in the North as the earth tips away from the sun. I find myself leaning toward the equator. Mornings are stunning this time of year as the golden aspen leaves sing against the brilliant blue sky.

Anthracite Ridge, behind our house.

Our greenhouse produced lots of beautiful tomatoes this year. I brought this clump in and sketched them. A red tomato just glows, doesn’t it? I didn’t try to stay in the lines with this one. It sits contentedly in my sketchbook, but I’ll carefully cut it out if you would like it. For sale here, on my Etsy site.

The Sketch Project was quite an accomplishment and your kind words of encouragement helped so much. Thank you for cheering me on. The sketches will be on display in Cape Town, South Africa during the month of October. They will return to Alaska, then finally land in Kihei, Hawaii where the buyer lives. Amazing how such a piece of art can get around.

Seeing that I was able to sketch every day with such great response, I’ve decided to sell one sketch a week. I haven’t done this before and I will admit I’m a bit nervous. I’m not nervous about sketching, but the commitment of getting the image up for sale on a regular basis. It isn’t really that big of a deal if I look at it one sketch at a time, so with that confession, I’ll show you this week’s sketch. This is an original and I’m not planning on making prints because that is a commitment I don’t even want to look at right now. Here is the link to my Etsy store if you would like to purchase it. I’m going to put it on Facebook tomorrow, but I wanted to give my blog friends first opportunity. I’m going to keep the cost low on these because I want you to have a chance to buy them and it will motivate me to sketch and sketch.

“South Fork Sketch” 5″ x 8.5″ original watercolor and ink sketch

The leaves are turning and some have blown off the trees. Last week I took this photo.

Finished! All 30 sketches are complete and on their way to Cape Town, South Africa, to be displayed there for the month of October. The booklet of sketches is on Ebay and the winning bidder will receive them when they return in November. Here is a link to see a thumbnail of all the sketches.

Down on the Matanuska River

Clouds…because.

Our fireweed signals that summer is over.

This gives you an idea of the layout and the size of the sketches. There are sketches on both sides. Each sketch is 4 inches wide by 3.5 inches high and they all fold into a small little packet!

Thank you so much for joining me with these sketches. Your comments are so kind and encouraging. Now I’m off on another project. You’ll just have to wait and see!

Day 21 through 26 of the Sketching Project. I tried to choose a variety of subjects, but I tend to spend as much time outside as I can since winter is just around the corner.

Our son’s mailbox looked so pretty in the sun.

The Matanuska Glacier with the river in front as it converges with Caribou Creek.

Rose hips are plump and red now. I’m thinking of making some syrup with them.

Wonderful GrandView Lodge, where they serve the best coffee, pizza and pie!

How I love laundry dried outside…

Thought I’d make a stunning dried arrangement with these four-foot beauties. Placed them carefully on the back seat of the car, then started to drive, then pulled over to heave them out of the car. Wow, did they stink!

I’ve been asked to take part in a sketching project originating in South Africa. People from around the world are joining me to sketch every day in August in this sketch pack they sent. The owner of an art supply store in Cape Town, called ArtSource, invited me and I had to say yes. At the end of the month, we all will send our little packet back to her and they will be on display and for sale for the month of October. I’m posting my sketches daily on Facebook if you would like to follow me there. I’ll post here every week as I don’t want to overload your inbox.

Our deck is going crazy with nasturtiums!

My guitar waiting patiently for me to stop sketching and play.

Palmer with the mountains as a backdrop.

Most of the time while I’m sketching people just walk on by, but when I sketched the little scene of Palmer, above, a policeman, a biker, and a friend stopped to visit. The policeman wanted to tell me about his sister who paints, the biker thought I had a flat tire and stopped to help, almost deafening me as he went by (twice) on his motorcycle, and the friend was happy to just visit. The pastoral vibe in the sketch came from somewhere, but not from the atmosphere around me.

I’m having a hard time not sketching just flowers because they are just amazing this year with our record heat.

I made a wonderful pizza on the grill last week and a peach galette. Maybe I’ll sneak in a post with those recipes for a change of pace. Food is always a good idea and it has been awhile since I’ve let you in my kitchen.

Every now and then an email falls into my inbox and I smile. My niece sent me a note with a photo of her two children on a beach in New England. Would I be willing to paint it as an anniversary gift for her parents? Oh, my…yes!

What I do with a photograph like this first is to just absorb it. It may sound odd, but I want to think of the sea, the breeze, and the birds before I even put the brush to paper.

Next I crop the image, making the children the focal point and deleting anything that would distract from them. I wanted to give the children a more natural element to look at such as seagulls and I moved them closer to the water. Or did I raise the tide?

I liked the plaid of the little boy’s pants, but the dots on the little girl’s dress were just too distracting. The blue of the sky and water is lovely, but I wanted more colors in the whole image so I washed a rainbow of colors through the water and sand.

We just returned to Alaska from sixteen sun-filled days on Maui. Humpback Whales, who spend their summers in Alaska were there, leaping out of the water with abandon. Seems they eat until they are fat and full in our cold, but food-rich water, then turn around and head to Hawaii for a winter of birthing and mating. With all the celebrating, it is no wonder they are leaping and splashing about. We talked to a man on the beach who had watched a cow that morning (that would be the female whale for you who might not know. I’d hate to have you imagining an Angus leaping about in the water). The cow was holding her calf (yes, that would be the youngin’) out of the water after just giving birth. Aren’t they clever to spend the winter in Hawaii? I think we should follow their lead. I’m so willing. I just learned that they don’t eat much in Hawaii so I won’t follow their lead on that score.

On the last day of our visit, a turtle waved its flipper at us as we swam though the surf to shower and go catch the plane back to Alaska.

Here are some sketches of our trip. Have you been to Hawaii? What island did you visit and what did you love?